GEORGE HOLWORTHY PALMER. AN ENGINEER
George Holworthy Palmer was 19th
century engineer – a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and despite a
wide range of interests he has been known as a gas engineer. Many books and articles about engineers
describe their successes and contributions to science and technology and to society
as a whole, but, for all of these successful engineers there must have been
many, many failures. I had come across
George Holworthy Palmer following the debacle
at the Old Kent Road works of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, which is well
known and repeated in almost every history of the company. In my research on the early gas industry in
London I was constantly encountering Palmer who seemed to have worked for most
of the London gas companies and been dismissed by most of them in due
course. Why did they take him on,
despite his past record? This paper is about someone whose career appears to be
a disaster.
SOME PERSONAL
BACKGROUND
George Holworthy Palmer was
born in 1792 in Rotherhithe[1]. His father John Palmer is listed as a
shipwright - and in those days any number of Rotherhithe men would have
described themselves thus, ranging from day labourers to wealthy owners of
important shipyards. His mother was Sarah Ann Holworthy and, surprisingly,
there is a monument to her in the church of the Wiltshire village of Shalbourne
–it is in fact almost the only thing of historical interest described in the
village.[2] Holworthy family members appear to have owned
Rivar Farm and various property transactions might indicate a family who were
well off, if not wealthy.[3] John
Palmer may have been born in Shalbourne in 1764[4] and in
later life gave addresses in the Wiltshire and Berkshire countryside, not area
normally associated with shipwrights.
We know very little about George himself as a boy. Family
history sources tell us that he was christened in Bristol in 1799 when he would
have been eight years old. The reason
for this very late event is not known. Sometimes such a late christening meant a
non-conformist background but his mother’s plaque in Shalbourne’s Anglican
church makes this seem unlikely.
George was indentured as an apprentice in 1807 to a William
Gibson, shipwright.[5] In the indenture John Palmer gave an address
in Hungerford, Berkshire. The indenture itself is registered through the City
of London but it seems likely that the shipyard concerned was elsewhere. There
was a large shipyard at the Union Dry Dock in Hull owned by a William Gibson and
dating from 1805[6] although there were other Gibsons throughout
the shipbuilding industry. Palmer did not stay with Gibson and in 1811 moved
his indentures to a William Durkin. Durkin
was almost certainly was the owner of a shipyard in Northam, Southampton.[7] Both of these shipyards had undertaken single
contracts for warships, and a ship, Carnation, was built by Durkin while Palmer
was with them.[8] It may be that the lure of working on a
sailing warship, was what led Palmer to move to Southampton, or, more likely, based
on his subsequent career, he had a dispute with Gibson.
He had returned to London by 1813 when he married Charlotte
Millwood from Wakefield at St. Olave’s church in Southwark.[9] They lived in Lower Edward Street, Limehouse[10] where their son, also George Holworthy, was
born in 1814, when George describes himself as ‘a surveyor’. [11] He had left his apprenticeship by then and
been admitted to the Shipwright’s Company.
In 1814 he was employed as a storekeeper for the new Chartered Gas
Company.
THE LONDON GAS INDUSTRY AND THE ‘CHARTERED’ COMPANY
The means of production of gas made from coal to be used
for lighting had been developed from the 1780s. This included scientific input,
both theoretical and practical, from a Manchester based group including John
Dalton and William Henry.[12] The
technology of Coal gas manufacturing had been developed by the Boulton and Watt
engineering firm in Birmingham and they had sold gas making plant to
industrialists to light their individual buildings.[13] The
idea of a gas factory – where coal gas was produced to be sold to the public -
was developed in London and promoted by Frederick Albert Winsor who, like
Gregory Watt,[14]
had witnessed demonstrations of gas lighting experiments in Paris. In London a
group of enthusiasts formed a company – the Gas Light and Coke Company,
commonly known as ‘The Chartered’ - to implement Winsor’s ideas[15] and gas
manufacture began following a Parliamentary enquiry.[16] There
was a great deal of publicity around this and while a demonstration of gas
lighting in Pall Mall in 1806 is famous[17], there
were others including one at Beech Street in the City of London[18] and
some small pioneering gas plants were built.[19] This was all very glamorous and high tech and
ambitious young men flocked to it.
Clearly Palmer was one of them.
The original ‘Chartered’ company had had at least two experimental
plants, but opened its first ‘proper’ works in Great Peter Street. It was quickly realised that the promoters of
the company, despite all their talk of the marvels of this new technology, had
actually very little idea about how to go about implementing it.[20] They recruited a young man who had trained in
Manchester under Dalton and Henry, then worked in Birmingham, and who had
already built a gasworks.[21] He was one of the few people with the
expertise to set up a public works and his name was Samuel Clegg. [22]
Clegg was recruited to work for the Chartered Company in
late 1812 and he set about sorting out the numerous problems, technical and
administrative. Two more works were
built, at Curtain Road[23] near
where Liverpool Street Station now stands and the other at what was then called
Brick Lane, off the Goswell Road.[24] George Holworthy Palmer was recruited to work
under Clegg in the humble position of storekeeper.[25]
Palmer seems to have come to Clegg’s attention through his draughtsmanship
skills and as storekeeper he made helpful suggestions about invoicing and other
administrative matters.[26] By
January 1815 he had risen to ‘assistant to Mr. Clegg’ [27] and by
1817 he was being asked to redraw street plans and note where the main pipework
of the company was laid[28]. He
also demonstrated to the Court a valve which he had invented[29] and all
seemed to be going well. Suddenly, in mid-1818, he was dismissed, for which no
reason is given in the company minutes. [30]
MACCLESFIELD AND THE PURIFICATION PATENT
Palmer
took out his first patent in early 1818, on the ‘purification’ of gas. [31] It was an attempt to deal with the
‘disagreeable smell’ of coal gas straight from the retort which was a major
drawback to the spread of gas lighting, particulary for indoor use. Many
attempts were made to deal with this[32].and for
many years various lime-based systems were used to ‘purify’ it. It was not
until the 1850s that a process was developed using oxide of iron which was patented
by Frank Hills[33],
who made a vast amount of money out of it and by then Palmer’s patent had been
forgotten.[34]
Chandler, however, noted “Holworthy Palmer in 1818 nearly anticipated Hills
when he suggested …. bringing it (the gas) into contact with red hot iron…. if
Palmer had changed the method … to a cold process ….it remained for Hills to
perfect the system some thirty years later”. [35] Palmer lived to see the success of Hills’
patent noting his old patent which pre-dated all the others, but had expired in
1832.[36]
Palmer,
having left the Chartered Company in 1818[37] appears
to have taken himself and his patent to Macclesfield. [38] A gas company had been set up there in 1817[39] which may
have been associated with James Hargreaves, an early activist in the Chartered
Co. who probably knew Palmer. In 1820
two directors of the Chartered Company travelled to Macclesfield to see
Palmer’s equipment in action. They reported ‘we attended the works three times
in the course of the day ….to get tests at different times…the difference was
trifling before and after…imperfect and inefficient’. Knowledge of Palmers system had however spread
beyond Macclesfield and in 1818 promoters of the Preston Gas Company wrote asking
about his purification system and he demonstrated it to them. [40]
It
seems that Palmer had discovered the basis of a real solution to the
purification problem, but his ideas were not developed. This was to become a
pattern.
THE
ROYAL MINT
At
some time after 1814 Palmer began work at the gas making plant in the Royal
Mint and was eventually described as the ‘Superintendent’.[41] This plant was not for public supply but for
a factory based installation of the type Boulton and Watt had put in a number
of industrial premises. The Mint itself had been completely modernised in the
early 19th century and by 1809 it was in a purpose built works on
Tower Hill with the latest steam powered machinery.[42] This
included a gas making plant for which Clegg had been the consultant.[43] Much of the technology was new and is famous
from illustrations published by Frederick Accum, the German chemist then working
in London and advising the new gas industry.[44] Clegg
must have had some confidence in Palmer to hand over part of this important
public works for him to administer.
There
are occasional references in records to Palmer’s 'work at the Mint. At one
point he reported to the Imperial Gas Company, then his employers, over
problems with drawings[45] and
asked consent to use patterns of a retort and lamps at the Mint.[46] On
another occasion there is a letter written by himself in his role at the Mint,
to himself in his role at Imperial asking for the loan of equipment in an
emergency.[47]
Palmer
was still at the Mint works in 1828.[48] Later
that year an audit found that the works was costing twice as much to operate as
a commercial gas works. An ‘outside manager’ was brought in and in due course
the Mint began to buy its gas from the Ratcliffe Gas Light and Coke Company.[49]
THE
IMPERIAL GAS COMPANY
Palmer’s
next job after Macclesfield was at the Imperial Gas Company. Imperial was a ‘much grander concern’[50] with considerable ambition backed by serious
money, although there were some
scandals.[51] The intention was for a gas company to serve
the whole of North London and its first two works were built simultaneously
alongside the newly opened Regent’s Canal; one at St Pancras[52] and one
known as Shoreditch, at Haggerston[53].
In May
1822 Palmer was appointed ‘superintendent' of the work’ with a salary of £200 a
year and the understanding that he would remain at the Mint.[54] He was involved with both of Imperial’s north
London works but mainly with Shoreditch. This leads to some confusion because
the minute books do say which works an order refers to but there were many orders and he was clearly
very busy.
Sometimes
his draughtsman’s skills were needed[55] but there
was a wide variety of work – including ‘a model of a lime machine’[56] and
‘plans for an elaboratory’.[57] There
were complaints from other staff that he was not producing work quickly enough.[58] A row
had already taken place where Palmer is reported to have told the Clerk that
‘the company's money would be wasted’ – the words ‘thrown in the sea’ are crossed
out in the records.[59] In
February 1823 it was reported that the new Shoreditch gas holders had collapsed
– ‘Stratton’s tackle had failed’.[60]
In
July Palmer was directed to ‘attend the committee every day’[61] and it
was reported that other people had written some of his reports[62] and the
Committee of Works were ‘deeply impressed by the negligence or insufficiency of
Mr. Palmer”.[63] In December he was sacked.
He
seems also to have lost some of Samuel Clegg’s support. When, in 1823 Clegg
gave evidence to a Select Committee when asked if he knew Palmer and ‘what was
his duty? - was he ‘denominated the superintendent?’ Clegg replied only that Palmer was ‘a
draughtsman to the concern’. [64].
MORE
PATENTS, MORE GAS WORKS AND A STEAM CARRIAGE
In
February 1822, while working at Imperial, but described as ‘of the Royal Mint’,
Palmer had registered another patent.[65] This is
described as ‘certain improvements in the production of heat by the application
of well-known principles not hitherto made use of”. This is for a gadget which
uses “the employment of a blast …. into furnaces …..capable of a complete
combustion of the fuel …. and a
considerable financial savings.”[66]
After Palmer
left Imperial in 1823 he continued at the Mint until 1828 and clearly had other
things to do. One of them was building a
gas works at Great Yarmouth. In this
period most towns were considering the use of gas for street lighting and there
were a number of ‘consultants’ actively lobbing local authorities with plans
for gas works in their areas.[67] Palmer
had clearly joined them. In 1824 he appears to have been party to an agreement
to build a gasholder and lamps at Great Yarmouth. His partners were Francis Bramah,[68] William
Stratton[69] and
Henry Atkinson, from the Mint.[70] The Yarmouth Gas Light Company was launched
in 1825 and the works described as ‘built by Mr. G. H. Palmer of London’. There is a detailed contemporary description
of the works although Mr. Palmer apparently “disposed of his interest’ and took
no part in future management.[71]
He may
have been involved in several other new gas works. For instance in 1832 he
submitted a tender for the construction of one in Woolwich. The gas company
concerned chose Barlow’s tender but the works was to be built ‘in the light of
Palmer’s plans’.[72] He was also involved in a project to open a
gas works in Monmouth, Wales, with John Wyke Fowler, who was a tin plate works
owner at Belvedere Road in Lambeth.[73] Their partnership for this project was
dissolved in 1831 although Fowler was to continue at Monmouth for the next ten
years.[74] There may well have been others.
In
1825 Palmer patented an ‘arrangement of machinery for propelling vessels.[75] This involved “reciprocating paddles working
to and fro at the sides” of boats. He
was to return to this work in future years.[76]
George
Palmer Jnr. would have been 14 in 1828 and attended the new University College where
he matriculated in chemistry, mathematics, and mechanics[77]. His address is given as 7 Marchmont Street, a
shop adjacent to the college. It seems
unlikely that this is the family address and in 1831 they were at 8 Manchester
Street, Grays Inn Road. This is today’s
Argyle Street;[78]
number 8 would have been opposite today’s St.Pancras Station.
Immediately south of Manchester Street
was Dutton Street – now Tankerton Street.
These roads were part of the Cromer Lucas Estate[79] and in April 1817 the estate’s management
committee had opened discussions with a William Caslon[80] and a small gas works had been built on the
west side of the street, but it had proved unpopular. It was closed by the
Imperial Gas Company, and some of the equipment was transferred to their new
Fulham works after 1829. Did Palmer have
a role in its closing and the transfer of equipment to Fulham?
There
was another patent in 1831/2 for a steam engine and boiler ‘applicable to propelling
vessels and carriages’[81] and described
as ‘A self-regulating blast apparatus’; Palmer now describing himself as a
‘civil engineer’. The improvements were, he said, “to render it (the steam
engine) less costly, more portable, and effective ...and more economical in its expenditure of
fuel’. He claimed that its design was based on theoretical principles – and
this was to be something he returned to in several of his many subsequent
patents.
The use
of the patent was to be demonstrated in a steam carriage which was built for
Palmer by Bramah [82]–
his connection with Francis Bramah is noted above. It is described in relation
to his 1831/2 patent[83] and
illustrated.[84] An article in Mechanics Magazine of 1833[85] gives a
list of nineteen vehicles, including Palmer’s, then in production in the London
area. Some of these
vehicles were ultimately reasonably successful[86] and
over the next fifteen or so years there were many more vehicles described in
Mechanics Magazine. In the long run they were not a success[87] although they persisted on a small scale into
the 20th century.[88] Palmer’s vehicle is not heard of after the
early 1830s. In Mechanics Magazine it is described as a ‘drag’ – meaning a
private carriage. A print of the
vehicle is not easy to interpret; it shows the steam engine mechanism as
described in Palmer’s patent but it is otherwise difficult to work out which is
front or back, or in what directing it is supposed to go. Most crucially it is not clear what it could
have carried, or where any driver would have been located. I have never found reference to it having
been used.
In
1833 Palmer became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. His document submitted for membership is
signed and endorsed by Bryan Donkin[89] and
James Simpson[90]
– both eminent engineers and clearly indicates some standing in the
profession. Palmer henceforth described
himself as a Civil Engineer.
THE SOUTH
METROPOLITAN GAS COMPANY
In
1829 Palmer moved to South London as engineer to the South Metropolitan Company
at their Old Kent Road works. He and his
family lived in one of the houses in Canal Grove adjacent to the works.[91] By the end of the 19th century
South Met.was famous but its first few years were very difficult. It had been set up to make gas with cannel
coal which was said to give a better and brighter light; but the first
directors were enmeshed in fraud.[92]
The
works were operational by 1833. In 1830 the works stood alongside the Grand Surrey
Canal but successive expansion and closures meant that it moved southwards down
the Old Kent Road. The works which Palmer built was quite small with gasholders
parallel to the canal frontage.[93] The carbonising plant is said to have had 24
settings of three cast iron retorts, in a retort house built by Cotton and
Hallam. The chimney was built by John Souter amd Palmer’s purifying house was
described as a ‘remarkable structure’.[94] Two
gasholders were provided to a design by John Malham with central cast iron
columns. [95]
The
first meeting of the new Board in 1834 received reports from Palmer, but they also
mentioned ‘the accident’[96] which may refer to a fire in two tar tanks
which ‘had burst’ on the previous Monday.[97] Relations between Palmer and the Board
continued with what has been described as ‘mutual distrust’.[98]
The
Board asked Palmer to list all visitors to the works and to see that care was
taken around the site.[99] They asked about the security of water tanks,
whether the gas holders were efficient, whether the chimney was adequate and
about the stability of foundations to the chimney and other buildings.[100] A
dispute arose over a patent which Palmer proposed to register which ‘perfected
a method of extracting the volatile oils on naphtha from coal’. When the Board wanted details he refused to
give them on the grounds that he could not get a patent if he had told more
than two people about it. He eventually
demonstrated it to a subcommittee who then ordered a plant for the process to
be built but ‘he still withheld the essential chemical secret’.[101] Is not
clear which patent of Palmer’s this episode refers to. In 1835 he patented a
process for the ‘purification inflammable gases and apparatus for effecting the
same’ but this says nothing about naphtha recovery.[102]
The
project at South Met. was abandoned as the situation deteriorated and relationships
between Palmer and management soon came to crisis level. In May 1836 Palmer was
accused of making ‘some allegations’ about Frederick Blakesley, the Managing
Director. A meeting was held with the
directors at which Palmer is said to have been ‘over excited’[103] and a
subsequent meeting Palmer told the Board that the ‘Managing Director was
incompetent and that the interests of the company were daily suffering in his
hands’. [104]
Inevitably he was sacked.[105]
Palmer
and his family continued to live in Canal Grove but he did not collect his
salary. A few weeks later the workmen of
the company were ‘refusing to perform their duties’ ‘’’in respect to the dismissal
of the company’s late engineer’. This
appears to have been settled by Blakesley.
Mysteriously a year or so later the Board minuted payment of a bill for
beer supplied to workmen in this period.[106]
On the
9th of October’ around six in the evening ‘a tremendous body of
flame shot upwards from the purifying house’ lifting the roof 80 feet, there
was a deafening explosion and parts of buildings were thrown all around and
across the canal. Two men were seen to be badly injured – one of them Mr. Hill,
the replacement engineer for Palmer. The gas supply was turned off, police
arrived and a search for more injured began.[107] Palmer appeared and was accosted by Blakesley
who ‘requested his assistance’. But ‘Mr.
Palmer left the works having recommended that the area be abandoned and that
there was a great danger of a second explosion’.[108]
Rumours
began as to the cause of this disaster – had an ‘unskilful person’ entered the
building with a lighted candle. It was noted that ‘experienced men’ had
recently been sacked and the wages of others lowered. [109] About
a fortnight after the explosion a prominent gas engineer. John Grafton, wrote a
letter to the press citing ‘the complete safety of properly constructed gas
apparatus’. He also said ‘the works came under new superintendence, and before
it was ascertained that the apparatus for purifying were too small … the gas
released itself from the vessel in a highly compressed state, and thus a volume
accumulated sufficient to fill the entire building before the escape was
dissevered, and then, unfortunately, a man, who went to see what was the
matter, took a light within the room and occasioned the explosion..[110]
Palmer
and his family continued to live in Canal Grove. He claimed there was property
of his in the works but the Board only allowed him to enter in the company of a
solicitor.[111]
He did not answer letters as they tried to find ways to evict him. He left in
early 1837 but it was not until November that it was discovered that neither
rent nor sewer rates had been paid.[112] While still there, in 1836, he had returned
to his gas purification process with another patent registered which appears to
involve ‘an apparatus …applicable to other useful purposes’. [113]
George
Holworthy Jnr. had been working with his father in the Old Kent Road in 1837
and later went to work for the Imperial Continental Gas Association.[114] He died in Marseille in 1858 and probably worked
for ICGA there[115] but more likely he was involved in some of
the Marseille based enterprises of his father-in-law, the eminent chemist and
engineer, Philip Taylor.[116]
THE
NEXT TEN YEARS
Moving
from Canal Grove Palmer and his wife, Charlotte, lived in Surrey Square on the
borders of Peckham and Camberwell.[117]
In
1837 he gave a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers. This was ‘On the
application of steam as a moving power, considered especially in reference to
the economy of atmospheric and high pressure steam’[118]. This theoretical paper was written without
the later knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics and is an attempt to confront
the question as to why the Cornish engine was efficient. It has however been taken up recently and he
has been quoted at length in papers on technological change in the industrial
revolution as a contributor to the debate on Cornish engines. [119] This
was followed by another patent on steam generation.[120]
His
next venture seems to have been into the tangled world of gas meters.[121] Palmer’s two patents on meters were held
jointly with a George Bertie Paterson.
Paterson’s address, given in the patents, is ‘Hoxton’ but elsewhere, and probably more truthfully, is
shown as Peacock Street in Walworth. In 1837 along with a patent agent called
Miles Berry Palmer applied for an Act of Parliament to set up the Patent Dry
Meter Company to manufacture meters.[122] In
Palmer’s obituary he is said to have been the engineer to the Original Patent
Dry Meter Company and it is probable that these are the same organisations. The
rest of the story is outlined in Kings Treatise where it is said that the
Patent Dry Gas Meter Company was set up with a capital of £80,000 to build “a
very extensive premises adjoining a canal[123] where
the meters were to be produced in very large numbers”. King concludes that they
were not ‘commercial' and that the enterprise did not involve the gas
companies. It appears they soon went out of business with the ‘ruin of their
backer’.
In
1839 Palmer revisited his patent for Paddle Wheels[124]and
then within a year registered a patent for a piston[125]. This
patent for ’improved construction of pistons and valves for retaining and
discharging gases and steam’ was held jointly with a Charles Perkins. Perkins
is described as a ‘Merchant of Mark Lane’ but he was in fact the youngest son
of John Perkins, the brewer, from the Barclay and Perkins Southwark Anchor
Brewery –with the largest output of any brewery in London. Charles was a
colliery and ironworks owner and lived at Southend – near Catford.[126] I have
found no detail on use of this patent and it may be that the patent was applied
to a successful project somewhere by Perkins.
EMPLOYMENT
WITH MORE GAS COMPANIES – AND MORE PATENTS
In the
late 1830s Palmer was consulting engineer to the Equitable Gas Light and Coke
Company. He was paid £207 a year ‘as
proposed by himself’. [127] `The
Equitable Company was based in Pimlico and had had a chequered and fraudulent
past. In 1839 an inquiry said to be initiated by Frys of Bristol sought to
regularize the situation[128] and it
may be that Palmer had been brought in then. He seems to have undertaken a report
on the works.[129] The outcome of his time at Equitable is not
clear, but a brief note in the records of the Commercial Gas Company says that he
had damaged the Equitable and put them to ‘great expense’.[130]
The
Commercial Gas Comany was based in Stepney and they too employed Palmer.
Following a reordering of the board in 1843 it was reported that the ’old
directors’ has called him in as a consultant. They had paid out ‘thousands of
pounds in expenses’ and ‘what had he done was a complete failure. So much for
him’.[131]
A
report of 1848 appears to connect Palmer to a gas works at Newport on the Isle
of Wight as an insolvent debtor. [132] There
are indications in 1852 that he, or his son, had court appearances around this
time for insolvency. [133]
There
was yet another patent from Palmer in 1850.[134] This
was on the arrangement and construction of gas holders and was held jointly
with Joshua Horton of the Aetna Ironworks in Smethwick. Horton’s were important manufacturers of
gasholders[135]
and built many and it has to be presumed they knew what they were doing. The patent claims to be a ‘more simple,
efficient and economic’ mode of supporting the top of gasholders. Was this incorporated in Horton’s future holders
– and, importantly, did it work? .
Another
venture at this time involved George Hepple Ramsey who had originally been a
manufacturer of firebricks in Derwenthaugh but had acquired a number of
collieries and was intending to sell cannel coal.[136] Advertisements describe various tests in
which Palmer appears to have been involved[137]
although the main tests appear to have been undertaken by Dr. Leeson of Saint
Thomas’s Hospital[138] and Dr
Miller of Kings College,[139] both
Professors of Chemistry. They found that
‘100 cubic feet of Mr. Palmer’s would
give a light equal to rather more than 200 of the ordinary gases’. Experiments to test the quality of Ramsay’s
coal were carried out by Andrew Fyfe,[140]
Professor of Chemistry in Aberdeen, and by Dr Richardson of Newcastle on Tyne.[141]Also
involved was Alexander Wright, a London based gas engineer[142].
THE
WESTERN GAS COMPANY
Palmer
continued to live in Surrey Square and it was from there that he registered a
new patent in 1847.[143] This
set out a detailed scheme for the manufacture of gas from the retort onwards,
including purification and recovery of by products. In 1849 he took this scheme to the Western
Gas Company, based in Kensal Green and which had been set up in 1845.[144] He seems
to have persuaded them to sign an ‘annuity document’ which says, among other
things, that he has invented a ‘better
way’ making gas and is passing the exclusive rights to them. It also says that
should he die that the rights should be passed his to his wife, Charlotte.[145]
By
1849 Palmer and Charlotte had, moved to Westbourne Villas in the Harrow Road
near the Western Gas Light Company’s works[146]. As
ever the company minutes include notes on instructions given to Palmer who was
asked to explain discrepancies in the difference between the actual price of
coal and what he had said it cost. He was asked to report on salaries and there
is mention of a strike.[147] In August 1850 the Directors said they
wanted to rewrite their agreement with him, to ‘determine his services to the
company’ and to come to an ‘amicable arrangement’. In October he was replaced
as works manager by Alexander Wright and was asked to ‘work amicably’ with him.
Wright was preparing a report on the works along with ‘Mr. King’.[148] The Board wanted to estimate the value of
Palmer’s services and how they should compensate him for the loss of his
salary. Two directors were appointed to act for Palmer, Messrs Rowbottom and
Sutton - Sutton was said to be a relation.
Palmer
had asked Professor Miller to investigate the works on his behalf but this did
not happen. King’s Report was tabled and Palmer was asked to report on his
objections to it. After another three months and several meetings Rowbottom and
Sutton said they would no longer act for him.[149] In May
1851 an agreement was proposed which included cancellation of the original
agreement and ‘Deed of Arrangement’.[150] for Palmer
in the form of an annuity until 1861; Mrs. Palmer was to get the money if he
died.[151]
In
February 1852 it was reported to the Western Board that the gas holder was
faulty and would have to be demolished.[152] It was later said that much of the works was
in fact rebuilt.[153] Around the same time Western were approached
by the Sheffield gas company who wanted to report on the effectiveness of
Palmers gas making patent. Western declined
to answer.[154]
This
is not been easy to establish when he was at Sheffield and for how long. Palmer is mentioned as engineer to the
Sheffield Consumers Gas Company in October 1852[155] and his
obituary describes them as ‘unfortunate’.[156] The
gas holder at their Neepsend works collapsed, and was eventually sold for
scrap.[157]
They had been founded in 1851 as a rival
to two previous concerns and there was ensuing litigation and some resulting case
law.[158] For
once anything Palmer may, or may not, have done was eclipsed by other problems.
THE
FINAL YEARS
Journal
of Gas Lighting cites Sheffield as Palmer’s last post. He was to live for another fourteen years during
which we very little.
A
patent of 1851 [159] for
heat and light in the indoor use of gas and the removal of fumes was joint with
a William Boggett..[160] Boggett
described himself as a ‘gentleman’ of St. .Martin’s Lane, but in fact he was a
button maker.[161]
He had previously taken out patents in a range of subjects, not obviously
connected to button making. In 1853
Palmer registered a patent from an address in Sheffield. This was for ‘Air
furnaces for fusion of steel’. Palmer stated that this related to his previous
patent with William Boggett but it was not proceeded with.
By 1854 - Palmer and Charlotte were back in London and living in Adelaide Road,
described as Hampstead. He submitted to
the patent office ‘a communication’ for Improvements in Guns, Gun carriage, and
Apparatus, and in the manipulation of working guns.[162] There is no evidence that this was ever
proceeded with and it is strangely out of character. Was this something someone had asked him to
prepare? In 1856 a patent for
improvements in furnaces for generating heat is a return to his normal range of
subjects.[163] Finally, in 1864
was a patent for heating and evaporating liquids.[164] By then he had moved again to Queens
Crescent, Haverstock Hill.
A CAREER IN
ENGINEERING
George Holworthy
Palmer died in 1868, at the age of 77. I do not know if Charlotte outlived him
and I have been unable to trace a will. His
only detailed obituary was in the professional gas press – Gas Journal.[165] They describe him
as ‘one of the earliest pioneers of gas lighting’ also, and more intriguingly,
that he was a pupil of Mr Clegg ‘most of whose early works were carried out by
Mr. Palmer’ – and that has to be an accolade, of sorts.
So, to sum up his
career. In a history of the South Met. Gas Company,
dating from 1875, he is described as ‘clever but impractical’[166] to which should probably be added ‘irascible
and tactless’. However there is a lot we don’t know about him and there may
have been successes. Palmer was clearly
clever with many, probably too many, bright ideas. What did his early training as a shipwright teach
him about the world of gas and steam engineering? Did he learn disciplines and
ways of looking at technical problems and how to solve them? His many patents illustrate his wide range of
interests – although some of them may have been the result of others
approaching him for help and advice – and maybe he charged for that. Most of them are basically about making
things work better rather than making something new. Professional inventors would look to
patenting something profitable, but this doesn’t seem to be true of Palmer, and
it seems likely that he died a poor man.
Then there are the gas
companies. Most of the dismissals that we know about were often the result of
rows with his employers and his careless attitude to basic health and safety
and management. On at least two
occasions he seems to have encouraged the workforce to side with him against
the owners. There are however several
works which he designed that we know little about and it may be that they were
successful. There must be some reason
why he continued with a reputation good enough to be taken on by a succession
of major gas companies.
He was clearly taken seriously
by many of his contemporaries. He may well have had a large consultancy
practice with many successes – while the records show only failure. Are we judging him on selective evidence?
I am however certain that in
studying ‘great engineers’ the Palmers of this world get ignored. The worked hard, often got it wrong, but doubtless contributed
to the common body of knowledge. There
must have been, and still are, many like him.
[1] Paddington Census 1851. Births and Christenings 1538-1975, Family
History Search Database, https://www.familyhistorysearh.org
[2] See
https://www.visitpewseyvale.co.uk/business-directory-2/st-michael-angels-church-shalbourne/ The monument apparently reads: Pain and trouble did I endure, Till God was
pleased to send a cure, He called me from this earthly clay, To dwell in realms
of endless day”
[3] For example – but there are several
others http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/1b7cb98b-4db5-47ce-88c8-bb321c6cb307
[4] Info late David Loverseed
[5]City of London Record Office.Indenture
collection. Cited in Ancestry.com
[6] www.hull.gov.uk/sites/hull
[7] London Gazette 1822,
[8] Gibson had built HMS Dauntless in 1804,
and Durkin has built HMS Carnation in 1812
[9]Cited in Family History
database.St.Olave’s Southwark Marriage Registers. St.Olave’s church is long since demolished
and stood in Tooley Street on the site of what is now St.Olave’s House.
[10]Limehouse Parish rate books. 1814
[11]Cited in Family History Database.
[12] There are clearly Wikipedia and other
general articles on the net and elsewhere about Dalton. Henry’s work is however
little known and I am not aware of anything written on his extensive work
with Boulton and Watt on the early gas making equipment. Some of this is
covered in Farrar, W.V., Farrar, Kathleen
R. & Scott E.L., "The Henrys of Manchester. Ambix, 1973, 1974
& 1975
[13]Almost every history of the gas industry
will begin with a chapter on the development of gas making equipment by Boulton
and Watt. For i.e. (and there are many,
many more) Williams. History of the British Gas Industry, 1981.
[14] This was demonstrations by Lebon See Elton,
A Ne w Light Shining. Unpublished. 1949
[15] Winsor and his publicity campaign are covered
by articles in DNB and on the net. More
detailed in Elton,opcit
[16]Minutes
of evidence ……. Bill to incorporate certain persons for procuring coke …. and
inflammable air, from coal. London, 1809
[17]Everard.History of the Gas Light and
Coke Co. 1949. This demonstration is
covered in most gas histories and the Rowlinson print of the event is famous
There is a now a commemorative plaque on the site.
[18]The Athenaeum. August 1807
[19] Stewart. Gas Works in the North Thames
Area, 1949, lists several – for example Golden Lane. There were undoubtedly
more.
[20] Everard (easily the best history of the
gas industry ever written)
[21] The gasworks was at Stoneyhurst
College. See Bennett. Clegg &Stoneyhurst College. NW Gas Hist Soc. 1986
[22] Samuel Clegg’s career is covered in
DNB, biographies and items on the net.
[23] See article in my People and Places in
the early Gas Industry. In 2018 there
has been a MOLA dig on the site, although their interest in this early gas
works was minimal.
[24] The building of the Brick Lane works
eventually fronted onto Goswell Road. Remarkably part of this site is still in
gas industry use as a depot
[25] Everard
[26] Gas Light and Coke Co. Directors
Minutes 18th Nov. 1815 & 31st January 1817
[27] GLCC DM 6th Jan1815 & 19th
Nov.185
[28] GLCC DM 11th Dec 1817
[29] GLCC DM 20th June 1817
[30] GLCC DM 17th April 1818
& 5th May 1818
[31] 4190
Purifying certain descriptions of gases.15th January 1818
[32] Chandler. Outline of the History of
Lighting by Gas. 1936. Gives a detailed account of these early years.
[33] Frank Hills was generally known in this
period as ‘The Deptford Chemist’. I have
covered some of his career in my PhD thesis
[34] I covered some of this process in my
PhD Thesis. 'The Early Gas Industry and its residual products in East London'
Open University 1995.
[35] There was some contemporary interest in
Palmer’s patent and some criticism. See: Repertory of Arts l9th July 1919;
Matthews, Historical Sketch of the origin and progress of gas. 1832;
Peckston.Theory and Practice of Gas Lighting, 1819.
[36]Journal of Gas Lighting. 23rd
Dec 1856
[37] GLCC DM 9TH January 1820
[38]Journal of Gas Lighting. 23rd
Dec 1856
[39]Macclesfield Corporation papers.
National Gas Archive , also information from the late David Loverseed
[40] Information from the late David
Loverseed
[41] Everard
[42]Mint website.
https://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/our-history/
[43] Stewart. Gasworks in the North Thames
Area
[44]Accum, Description of the process of manufacturing
coal-gas .1819
[45] Imp DM 13th Dec 1822
[46] Imp DM 19th Aug. 1822
[47] Imp DM 17th Jan 1823
[48] Contract Yarmouth Gas Works Norfolk
Record Office
[49] Stride. History of the Royal Mint.
[50] Everard
[51]Everard. Also see: Matthews. Rogues, Speculators & Competing Monopolies: London
Journal, XI
[52] Known as ‘Pancras Works’ – this is now
the preserved ‘Kings Cross Gas Holders’. It was probably designed by Clegg,
opened by Sir William Congreve and until 1860 the largest gas works in London.
Gas making stopped there in 1904 but it remained as a holder station.
[53] This works site is now Haggerston Park.
Gas was made there until 1954 and outlines of a canal basin, an inlet and the
holders could once be seen in the layout of the park.
[54] Imperial Gas Co. Directors ‘Minutes 23rd
March 1822
[55] Imp DM 23rd July 1822 ‘to
show drawing for gasholders ready
tomorrow’
[56] Imp DM 6th July 1822
[57] Imp DM 25th Sept 1822
[58] Imp DM 24th Sept 1822
Richards report a ‘deficiency’.
[59] Imo DM 4th Sept 1822
[60] Imp DM 19th February 1823
[61] Imp DM 11th July 1823
[62] Imp DM 10th Dec 1823
[63] Imp WM 19th Dec 1823
[64]Report from the Select Committee on Gaslight
Establishments 7th July 1823
[65]4646 12th February 1822. Production of heat by the application of
known principles
[66] Newton’s London Journal. Vol.8 provides
some commentary on this patent.
[67] I detailed some of this process in
Greenwich, and resulting scandals, in Journal of the Greenwich Historical
Society 2017/18.
[68] Francis Bramah was one of the sons of
Joseph Bramah , became a civil engineer and a partner in the family firm
[69] Stratton was the contractor at
Shoreditch Gas Works whose tackle had failed, causing the new gasholders to
collapse
[70] He was Provost of the Company of
Moneyers
[71]Druery.Historical and
Topographical Notices of Great Yarmouth. 1826
[72] Woolwich Equitable Gas Company
Directors Minutes 19th July 1832
[73] Fowler was at Kings Arms Ironworks. See
Survey of London. Vol.23.Lambeth. He also appears to have supplied other gas
works with pipes,etc.
[74] Monmouth Gas Co. papers Gwent County
archive.
[75] Patent 5253 15th Sept 1825
[76] Newton’s London Journal. Vol.8
[77] Information Dr. Gerrylyn Roberts
[78]Patents for inventions. 1861
[79]Survey of London, Vol. XXI, gives some
details about the site and the development.
[80]Minutes of the Paving Commissioners for
the Lucas Estate
[81] 6161 16th Sept. 1831
[82] A print of the vehicle says it was made
in 1832. This was a time of upheaval in the Bramah business with a break-up of
the partnership of Joseph Bramah’s sons with some of the business moving to
Smethwick. Frances Bramah who Palmer
clearly worked with stayed in London at the Pimlico works (Info Graces Guide)
[83] Gordon. A Treatise upon Elemental Locomotion 1834.
[84] Science Museum Bramah and Robinson collection ppage 25, ref 7/22. A black and white version along with some
details is also included with the patent specification.
[85] Mechanics Magazine 21st
December 1833
[87]Evans, Steam road
carriages of the 1830s: Why did they fail? Trans Newcomen Soc.,
1998, 70.
[88]Mills. Steam Cars made in Greenwich and
Run In Kent, Bygone Kent, 18/8 Sept, 1997 and following issues
[89] Bryan Donkin. Wikipedia. Donkin’s Works was in Fort Road, Bermondsey
and thus within the South Met. Gas Co.’s area of supply.
[90] James Simpson. Wikipedia.
[91]
This charming row of canal side cottages pre-dates the Gas Works. It was for many years a secret enclave only
accessed by a wooden door off the Old Kent road. Later engineers at the works, including the Livesey family lived here
[92] There is a vast amount of historical
writing on South Met. But what were
sponsored company histories Layton’s Early years of the South Metropolitan Gas
Company’, and the later ‘A Century of
Gas in South London’. Tend to stick with the later years when South Met.
considered itself the very best. More objective is Garton, "History of the
South Metropolitan Gas Co.", serialised in Gas World in 1952 and
never otherwise published. There have
been many articles.
[93] A site plan is reproduced in Laytons, History of the South Metropolitan Gas Company
and is cited as ‘in the possession of
the company
[94] Layton. Early Years of South Met. A drawing of the layout of the purifying
house is in the Bramah and Robinson collection at the Science Museum Wroughton
store. I have yet to find anyone able to
interpret this drawing.
[95]Sturt. Early Years at Old Kent Road
[96] South Met. Director’s Minutes 20th
April 1834
[97] Layton
[98]Garton
[99] SMDM 10th March 1834
[100] Layton
[101]Co-partnership Journal 1911. This also appears in Garton Gas World 8th
March 1952
[102]7024 8th March 1836. No details of this appear to be available.
[103] SMDM 2nd June 1836
[104]Quoted by Garton
[105] SMDM 23rd June 1836
[106] SMDM 27th April 1837
[107] Morning Chronicle 10th
October 1836
[108] SMDM 9THOct 1836
[109] Morning Chronicle
[110]Co-partnership Journal 1916. I have been unable to find the letter quoted.
[111] SMDM 26th Sept 1836
[112] SMDM 2nd Nov 1837
[113]
Rep. Patents and other journals list this patent, and some say ‘no specification
inrolled’ –although others give an ‘inrollment’ date. No detail is given. Palmer’s obituary in Gas
Journal Vol.17 1868 says the patent was ‘not specified’.
[114] SMDM 30th Nov. 1835. ICGA
built and owned gas works in major cities across Europe. It continued into the
1980s when it became part of Calor Gas, originally its subsidiary
[115] Norfolk Chronicle 4th May 18
59
[116] This is not the place to go into the
major enterprises and activities of the Taylor family. There is a Wikipedia page on Philip who may
interests included early London oil gas works and later ‘an industrial empire’
in Marseille. George Jnr. was married to
his daughter, Janet Marie
[117] Palmer’s home in Surrey Square may well
still stand, but sadly no numbers are given in the census or directories. Ironically there is a blue plaque to the
painter Samuel Palmer at No.42
[119] Alessandro Nuvolari & Bart
Verspagen. Technical choice,innovation,and British steam engineering,1800–501.
Economic History Review, 62, 3 (2009), pp. 685–710 and Alessandro Nuvolari.The Making of Steam Power Technology: A Study of
Technical Change during the British Industrial Revolution; Journal of Economic History 66(02) June 2006
472-476.
[120]Patent 7703 ‘for certain improvements in
steam generators and engines applicable to locomotive and stationery uses and
in the carriages to be used therewith. July 25th 1838
[121] See Richards, W. A Practical treatise on the Manufacture &
Distribution of coal gas, 1877 & King,
W., Treatise on the science & practice of the manufacture &
distribution of coal gas, 1878-1882.,
[122]Journal of the House of Commons. Vol.92
[123] The address given for Mr. Paterson in
Hoxton is likely to have been that of this factory. The Regent’s Canal north of
Hoxton is in fact, only a short distance away in the Kingsland Road s where Angus
Croll built his flamboyant Dry Gas Meter Factory in 1859. It might even be the
same site. (now there’s a surprise)
[124] Paddle wheels for propelling ships,
boats and other vessels navigated by steam or other motive ppwer.8047 2nd
April 1839
[125]Construction of pistons and valves 8728
28th November 1840.
[126]Fenwick of Lampton.Perkins family
history web site.
[127]Equitable Director’s Minutes 22nd
April 1840.
[128]Matthews. Rogues, Speculators & Competing
Monopolies., London Journal, 1985 XI
[129]Equit DM 1st May 1851
[130]Report of Commercial Gas Co. Meeting. 1st
March 1843.
[131]Report of Commercial Gas Co. Meeting. 1st
March 1843
[132]Hampshire Telegraph.12th
Feb 1848
[133] Morning Advertiser 22nd
January 1849 and 22nd June 1852 note court appearances for
insolvency. No details of this have been traced.
[134] 12067 Arrangement and construction of
gas holders
[135]cf Grace’s Guide
[136]
https://www.scottishbrickhistory.co.uk/ramsay/
[137] Journal of Gas Lighting 10th
April 1849
[138] Henry Beaumont Leeson was Physician at
St.Thomas’s Hospital from 1847. His real interest however was in light and he
invented a prism. cf Wikipedia, DNB. He
also had a mill on the Deptford riverside used for experimental work.
[139] William Allen Miller. Chair of
Chemistry at Kings. Miller was interested in astronomy and a crater on the moon
is named after him.
[140]cf Wikipedia
[141]Thomas Richardson – interested in the
application of chemistry to manufactures. cfProc. Royal
Society of Edinburgh, Vol. 6
[142] Wright had worked for meter
manufacturer Edge, and was seen as one of a younger and cleverer body of gas
engineers. He died, of cholera, at only 42. See Grace’s Guide.
[143] 1161 17th April 147
Producing inflammable gases
[144] Stewart. Gasworks in the North Thames
area.
[145] Western Gas Co. document collection.
Annuity.
[146]Address given in Annuity document.
Westbourne Villas is long gone under Westway and local authority housing.
[147]
See also Weston DM 12/1850. This
minute offers some explanation of a strike among the stokers. The ringleader
was said to be a Mr. Layard to whom Palmer was said to have given a sovereign
and to have recommended for a job with Edge, the meter manufacture
[148] William Boughton King, author of ‘Kings
Treatise’.
[149] Stewart. Gas Works of the North Thames
area
[150] Gazette 18th Nov. 1851
[151] Western Gas Co. DM 1849-1850 numerous
references
[152] Western DM 26th Feb 1852
[153] Stewart. Gas Works
[154] Western DM 25th April 1852
[155]Sheffield & Rotherham Independent.
30 October 1852. This is in a report of an extremely lively meeting.
[156] Journal of Gas Lighting 1868
[157]Sheffield Consumers. Report to Directors
1853
[158]Journal of Gas Lighting. Vol 13 1864
[159] 13783 Obtaining heat and light 22nd
October 1851
[160]English Patents of Inventions,
Specifications, Volumes 13761-13786
[161]
https://www.ukdfd.co.uk/pages/button-makers.html
[162] 1700 2nd August 1854
Improvements in guns
[163] 1853 6th August 1856
Furnaces for generating hear
[164] 1663 5th July 1864 Apparatus
for heating and evaporating liquids and fluids
[165] This is more commonly known as Journal
of Gas Lighting which became its later title
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